HC raps state for unhygienic washrooms in schools

The Bombay high court (HC) came down heavily on the state government for not ensuring sufficient washrooms in schools for the girls in both the urban and rural areas

Mumbai The Bombay high court (HC) came down heavily on the state government for not ensuring sufficient washrooms in schools for the girls in both the urban and rural areas.

The advocates for the petitioner submitted that while the condition of washrooms in urban areas was deplorable, the condition of washrooms in rural areas could be much worse (HT File)

The HC observation was made after perusing the report submitted by the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA), which had conducted surprise inspections in schools based on a previous HC order. The report stated that though there was a policy for separate washrooms for girls and boys, the same were insufficient in urban schools and the situation was much worse in rural schools. The HC directed the state and the petitioner to go through the report and file affidavits.

The division bench of justice Prasanna Varale and justice Sharmila Deshmukh, while hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Nikita Gore and Vaishnavi Gholave, was informed by advocates Abhinav Chandrachud, Yashodeep Deshmukh and Vinod Sangvikar that the issue of providing proper hygiene in schools was lacking and one of the petitioners had visited 16 state-run schools in the city and had found that the washrooms were either unusable or insufficient.

The advocates for the petitioner submitted that while the condition of washrooms in urban areas was deplorable, the condition of washrooms in rural areas could be much worse. Hence, steps needed to be taken to address the problem immediately.

In a previous hearing, the HC had directed the MSLSA to conduct surprise inspections in such schools. On Monday, the MSLSA submitted its report which consisted of inspection reports of 235 schools in 12 districts out of which 207 schools did not have proper, hygienic and usable washrooms. After seeing the report, the bench noted that it was a bad situation.

Additional government pleader Bhupesh Samant for the state informed the bench that the concerned authorities would go through the report and take steps accordingly. He further informed the bench that education officers of all regions had been informed of the surprise inspections by MSLSA as well.

After hearing the submissions, the bench inquired from the state about the report submitted by the petitioner of the 16 schools, “Is it not the duty of education officers to personally and periodically inspect the schools once in three months? If this is the scenario in urban areas, look at the plight of those in remote areas?”

The bench further noted in reference to the MSLSA report, “Not only the rural areas, even most urban areas, even suburbs of Mumbai have unhygienic washrooms. What are your education officers doing, are they only interested in issues like transfer, absorption?” The bench also questioned Samant on whether there was any report of education inspectors reporting to superior officers about unhygienic conditions, leave aside extra washrooms.

The bench then directed the state to go through the report and said, “It is not only a question of awareness about essential hygiene but it is also pertaining to the need for additional washrooms. Rather than the school department waiting for a complaint, department officers should also go on their own visits.”

The bench then directed the state to respond and posted the hearing of the PIL after four weeks.